The Gulf Cooperation Council condemned the car bombing that ripped through the southern suburb of Beirut on Thursday and which killed at least 22 people.

"This criminal and disgraceful act is an attack on Lebanon's security and stability," GCC secretary general Abdullatif al-Zayani said in a statement late Friday.

Thursday's bombing at the heart of the densely populated Hizbullah stronghold of Dahieh also targets "Lebanon's peaceful cohabitation, through sowing sedition" among its various confessions, he said.

The Gulf bloc, which groups Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, imposed sanctions on Hizbullah in June over its military support for the Syrian regime against the mainly-Sunni rebels.

Zayani urged the Lebanese factions "not to give room to vandals, advocates of sedition and terrorists."

He said the GCC stands by Lebanon's side "against all that threatens its stability," offering condolences to the families of the dead.

A previously unknown group, claiming to be a Syrian rebel cell, said it carried out the attack, which also wounded 325 people.